Finding Answers

In the past sales used to be about interrupting and pushing your product or services. In recent years sales has taken a more “customer centric or customer focused” approach. All about the customer and how they feel and what they want and how you can help them. Or is it?

I mean you’re in sales right? You are supposed to really care about your customer, right?

Street Vendors

Ask yourself one important question before your next sales call, “Am I’m really concerned about what my customers thinks?” Now I know it sounds quite insulting that I am implying that you really don’t care about your customer. I mean you’re in sales right? You are supposed to really care about your customer, right? You are supposed to really want to understand their feelings, their needs, and her desires, right?

The reality is that in execution you’re really focused on yourself.

Now you may have gone to some amazing sales training courses. You may have picked up some awesome books by such authors like Jeffrey Gitomer or Brian Tracy. Both are amazing sales trainers and accomplished authors.  (They both desire to see customers get the best service possible for their money.)   The goal of the books and the training is to get you the salesperson focused on the customer. The reality is that in execution you’re really focused on yourself.

In reality you were only listing to find the opportunity to speak to get your point across.

When you are in that sales call with your customer you are focused on every word they are saying. You are listening to them as they espouse whatever believes, concerns, or needs they have. You are waiting for them to give you that opening you have been seeking to deliver the message that you have about your products or services. Following all the training you have about being customer centric you gave them their time and now it is your turn. It is in their silence that you have your opportunity to speak and persuade them to purchase from you.

After the call you climb back into your car you congratulate yourself on being focused on the customer. In reality you were only listing to find the opportunity to speak to get your point across. That’s not being customer focused or even being centered around the customer. In some cases that is not even being polite.

You could think of these training programs as breeding little vampires that will entrance their customers and then suck them dry.

Customer Focused Sit Down

To be customer centric or to be focused on your customer you have to know them  better than they know themselves. The best salesperson that can execute this type of selling model is someone who honestly cares about their customer. They care about the customer staying in business, being profitable, and being a success. In this case the salesperson could almost be considered like a coach or a advisor that is unique in helping a customer achieve his or her goals. The salesperson understands that at times their products and services are not in the best interests of their customers. Conversely they also understand that their products and services are the only solution to make their customer successful. The salesperson can do this because they know their customer very very well.

• How well do they know the customer? Well, here are a few points below that you can measure yourself against:

• The customer centric salesperson will know how their customer was educated and how the education influences their decision making.

• The salesperson knows that the customer is one personality at work, one personality at play, and completely different personality when under stress.

• The salesperson knows who, what, when, how, and why their customer is influenced by other people around them.

• The customer focused sales person could explain to you in great detail the desires, hopes, and goals of each of their customers.

• The salesperson has ingratiated themselves to the point that they are almost a member full-time of their customers staff.

When you look at the above bullet points be honest with yourself and ask, “Do I meet the criteria above?” It is okay if you do not right away. It takes time and energy to become truly customer focused.

Customer Focused

All the training you have done so far around being customer centric or focused has really been about how you can leverage information for your own personal gain. When you look at it like that, you are not really focused on the customer at all; your only focused on yourself. You could think of these training programs as breeding little vampires that will entrance their customers and then suck them dry.

So how can you be different?

• First, really listen to your customer. Even if you burn a sales call without pitching a product you can learn more in those 10 to 30 minutes that you could in a product conversation that lasts hours.

• Second, remember why you are there in the cells called the first place. The customer and you both know you are there for business. Make it about business, but have your radar and your receivers tuned into everything else surrounding business.  When you leave the sales call, your post call notes should be about everything you talked about, witnessed, and observed. Everything.

• Third, be yourself. This is sometimes the hardest thing some salespeople can do. With so many profiling, personality surveys, and marketing data given to a salesperson it is easy to believe you have to be all things to all people. When the reality is you are nothing to no one. So be yourself and recognize that you’re not going to get along with all your customers and that is okay.

• Fourth, find ways big or small to celebrate every success your customer has.  The more you take interests in their goals and wishes the more likely your customer will be interested in yours. It is so funny how that golden rule seems to apply to everything in business.

• Fifth, and finally, be willing to tell your customer no. This sounds odd, because we’ve always been taught that the customer is always right. Sometimes that can actually be in the worst interests of your customer. You’re better off letting your customer know, politely, that now is not the time for whatever they may feel they are entitled to. It’ll hurt. They’ll be upset. In the end they will thank you for your honesty and your willingness to stand up to them.

In conclusion, being customer centric is really about being a true friend, in the business sort of way, with your customer. It is about being honest with yourself, knowing your limits, and being empathetic with your customer.  Focusing on their goals, celebrating their successes, and helping them complete their wishes is really what being customer focused is all about.

So, are you customer focused?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.